Thank you for asking. I believe my dodger will not last forever as it is circa 1985. I have replaced the windows once in 2010 and they are beginning to see their age. When I raced in the 2006 Rendezvous, we all had our dodgers down and I did not have a bimini even though it was hitting 40C+. We needed one badly and had it for 2007. In the 2014 Rendezvous, I was 8 years older and decided to leave the Dodger and Bimini up. It did not seem to hamper Mascouche’s performance, but made life much more enjoyable for skipper and crew (Ray Dykstra). However we did find that the flexible mast, wishbone and bimini was not a good combination, especially under power and coping with wakes,waves and swell.
Now to answer your questions:
Since my dodger stays up permanently, I would not sacrifice anything by replacing it with a dog house (as long as it were aesthetically pleasing) and would have the opportunity to use glass for durability and improved visibility.
My new boom is 16’ long so I have my mainsheet in front of the dodger mounted over the hatch. The block on the boom is about a third of the length of the boom measured from aft. This is OK but I would prefer to have another anchor point further aft. A solid dog house would provide another anchor point about a foot in from the end of the boom. This would even the loads on the boom.
If I were younger doing blue water cruising, I would build a bridge deck at the companionway and mount a track for the mainsheet on it.
A dog house would permit adding a small gallows/crutch on it to secure the boom. Having the boom secure in one of three positions using the dog house as a base is a boon to octogenarian sailors who might not be too steady on their pegs!
Cheers,
John Newell
Mascouche 26C#1
Toronto
PS enclosing photo of our flooded rigging green converted to a water garden.
It has not helped commissioning yachts this year and has delayed Jorgen and myself finishing our new rigs.
John, a friend of ours had a very nice and strong stainless steel arch built over the dodger to attach a traveler on a 32’ Ericson. The tubing was about 1 1/2 niches in diameter. Vert solid. You may wish to incorporate something like it.
They are cruising now but when I see them again I will try to send a pic.
With my most recent dodger the canvass maker did up a cover that goes over the entire dodger. It protects the windows and the canvass. I expect that the dodger and windows will last a very long time. On the photo if you zoom in you can see that in addition to the dodger cover I have an olde helmsman’s biminin that I have put over the fixed bimini to protect the windows.
As you may have read in prior postings, I have also put a bimini and full enclosure on La Reina. The dodger and bimini stay up all of the time. In very warm weather, an unusual occurrence out here, I will drop the centre panel on the dodger to allow air to blow through the cockpit.
If I am motoring with the sail down, I pull the boom as high as it will go. In that position it does not hit the bimini. On occasion I will also pull it to one side with a preventer lead to the rear quarter. If the sail is up I try to motor sail and keep the boom outside of the rear quarter. On one particularly nasty day I pulled the boom in further to clear a point of land. The waves were steep and close together. The boom hit the bimini arch several times and chewed up the leather trim. I will try to avoid that going forward.
As Rob Powers said a gallows/arch can be incorporated into a soft dodger frame. This would give you the attachment point and the gallows for your boom without the complexity of building a solid doghouse.
In terms of a hard dodger or dog house I have always thought that one shaped like the canvass but made out of fibreglass with a foam core would give the aesthetics of a canvass dodger and the life of a hard doghouse. The core should give it the stiffness it would need. It would take a great deal of work to get an acceptable finish on the outside and inside of the fibreglass. The problem that I have not solved is how to make the windows out of Plexiglas or Lexan but curve them to fit the shape of the dodger. One option would be to go the Hallsberg Rassey route of flat windows with a curved top.
Glass windows would be more scratch and UV resistant but would weigh more then Plexiglas or Lexan. One issue with glass is I think you would need to use safety glass which would be expensive if you could even get it in the right size and shape.
Thank you for your ideas. All useful to me and the INA. Since doubling the power of the main sheet on Sunday, I find the location for anchoring it fine at the front of the dodger. It means I will be able to keep the sheet shorter than a point further aft. I am able to use my old main sheet for this year as it permits the boom to reach 90 degrees. Next year I will need to increase it to 120’ to permit it to go to 120 degrees.
The hard dodger is not a priority at present as all funds and time is devoted to bringing the standing gaff rig up to speed. Some unintended consequences have been investing in a solar vent for the head to prevent the main sheet from fouling the cowl vent and a pair of LED cabin lights to fill the holes in the cabin liner made to secure the bridge for anchoring the main sheet with bolts.
I do like the Hallsberg Rassey doghouse design. Our’s would need more curvature to the top to provide sufficient head room without making it look like a big box. That would be in keeping with the curvature of our cabin tops that provides good headroom below without spoiling the lines of the 26’s. If you decide to build a doghouse with curved windows mimicing the dodger, you should search for the rear windows of a DKW or Auto Union of the 1950’s. It has two nicely curved sections and a central one that would be about the right size and scale for a 26.
Interesting thread. Just a bit of info on the roof camber topic .....
The convention in boatbuilding is that the further from the waterline, the more curvature in order to look “right”. Therefore boot tops have more sheer than the waterline, rub rails more yet and sheer lines even more. Likewise cabin tops should have more camber than decks, and a doghouse like this should have more than the cabin top. If not, even if it has the same camber, it will appear flatter.
